| TLJ News from December 26-31, 2005 |
8th Circuit Rules in North Kansas City Municipal Broadband Case
12/29. The U.S. Court of Appeals (8thCir) issued its opinion [6 pages in PDF] in Time Warner Cable v. City of North Kansas City, a dispute between a municipality and a private sector service provider over municipal provision of broadband services. The municipality won this round. See, full story.
8th Circuit Rules in Reciprocal Compensation Case
12/29. The U.S. Court of Appeals (8thCir) issued its opinion [10 pages in PDF] in Ace Telephone Association v. Koppendrayer, a dispute regarding reciprocal compensation, or the costs that one carrier pays to another carrier for completing its calls.
The appellees in the Court of Appeals are Ace Telephone Association and eight other competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) that compete with Qwest in providing local telephone service in the state of Minnesota
The appellants are Leroy Koppendrayer, who was sued in his official capacity as Chairman of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC), the other members, and the MPUC.
Qwest Corporation intervened in the District Court as a defendant, and is an appellant in the Court of Appeals.
The CLECs and Qwest did not negotiate a reciprocal compensation agreement. Rather, the CLECs initiated a proceeding before the MPUC to set the rate. It set the rate at zero.
The District Court the held that the zero reciprocal compensation rate was arbitrary and capricious, and a violation of 47 U.S.C. § 252(b)(5).
The Court of Appeals reversed the District Court. It upheld the zero rate on several grounds.
This case is Ace Telephone Association, et al. v. Leroy Koppendrayer, et al., U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, App. Ct. Nos. 05-1170 and 05-1171, appeals from the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
NTIA Releases Estimates of 1710-1755 MHz Band Relocation Costs
12/28. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released spreadsheets [PDF] that contain its estimates of the costs of relocating incumbent federal users out of the 1710-1755 MHz spectrum band.
The NTIA estimates that the total cost will be $935,940,312. It stated in a release [PDF] that the cost estimates for the 1710-1755 MHz band "are far less than previous wireless industry estimates".
This band, and the 2110-2155 MHz band, have been reallocated for use by wireless services that have variously been described as third generation (3G), advanced, and broadband.
See, full story.
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12/28. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) published in its web site a copy of a report titled "The Boundaries of Privacy in American Society". Judge Sam Alito participated in the writing of this report over thirty years ago while a student at Princeton University. See especially, Report of the Chairman [PDF], written by Alito. The Senate will begin hearings on his nomination to be a Justice of the Supreme Court on Monday, January 9, 2006.
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12/27. Anthony Scott Clark pled guilty in U.S. District Court (NDCal) to criminal charges of violation of 18 U.S.C. §1030, in connection with his having launched distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks at the computers of internet auction website eBay. He pled guilty to intentionally causing damage to a protected computer in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1030(a)(5)(A)(i), (a)(5)(B)(i), (c)(4)(A) and 2. Clark was charged by an Information [3 pages in PDF] filed on December 9, 2005. Clark has not yet been sentenced. The District Court has scheduled a status hearing regarding sentencing for 1:30 PM on April 3, 2006. This case is USA v. Anthony Scott Clark, aka Volkam, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, D.C. No. CR 05 00789, Judge James Ware presiding. See also, USAO release.